8 may face trial in Penn State cheerleader's fall

Six Penn State students waived preliminary hearings Wednesday on alcohol charges related to a party where a Penn State cheerleader was seriously injured in a fall from a fifth-floor window.

The six join two others who previously agreed to waive their hearings and now face possible trial on misdemeanor charges of supplying alcohol at the off-campus party in October, the Centre Daily Times reported.

The charges were filed in January after an investigation into the fall that injured 19-year-old Paige Raque. She suffered head and pelvic injuries after falling 39 feet out a screened window of the State College apartment. Police say the fall was accidental.

Raque has returned to her Kentucky home, but her family says she still suffers pain.

State College police allege that Tempest Hourston, Megan Markovitz, and Adaire Robinson - all 21 -bought the alcohol for the party at the fifth-floor apartment where the five other students charged lived.

Those students, 20-year-olds Alexandria Hipple and Brooke Piccione, and 19-year-olds Alyssa Duffy, Julie Hannan and Madeline Miller, then allegedly served five boxes of wine and five large bottles of vodka.

Hannan and Miller had previously waived their rights to a preliminary hearing and weren't in court Wednesday.

All eight women now face formal arraignments March 27 in Centre County Common Pleas Court.